An Apostolic publication promoting balanced conservatism … "the finest of the wheat!"

Mark 835 For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel’s, the same shall save it.
36 For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?
37 Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?

Sometimes we fight desperately to try to preserve our lives, when all the time God is trying to bring us to a higher level of living. No matter how meaningful our worldly pursuits may be to us and our finite little circle of influence, our lives are not even worth living unless we are living for Jesus Christ and promoting His gospel.

Self-preservation is innate, instinctive, inborn; self-denial is alien and abhorrent to our nature. Yet, if we act merely in the interests of self-preservation, Jesus Christ has decreed that we will lose the very thing we are trying to keep for ourselves—our lives, our fortunes, our honor, our souls. The only way to get what we really want is in denying ourselves the right to be in control of our destiny. We must abdicate our claim to the throne of our heart.

It is impossible for someone to gain the world without losing his soul. The salvation of our souls may only be had at the expense of the things that we want most dearly in this world. Conversely, the things that we want most dearly in this world may only be had at the expense of our soul.

What are we doing today for our own advancement? What are we doing today for the cause of the Kingdom of Christ? Are we seeking His Kingdom and His righteousness first? We should stop and carefully analyze our own ways lest we be found seeking to preserve our “comfort zone” and slowly but surely losing our souls.

A true child of God is never truly at home in this world. And the Church never has quite enough to offer someone whose heart is in the world.